Script, in motion pictures, the written text of a film. The nature of scripts varies from those that give only a brief outline of the action to detailed shooting scripts, in which every action, gesture, and implication is explicitly stated. Frequently, scripts are not in chronological order but in the order most convenient for filming. Their language approximates the patterns of ordinary speech. A script may be published as a literary work and never made into a motion picture, may be published for reading after the production is completed, or may be expanded into a novel—e.g., On the Waterfront (1954), by the American writer Budd Schulberg.

The way in which a script is used is up to the individual director. D.W. Griffith (1875–1948), the American pioneer in film technique and director of early film epics, worked virtually without a script, creating the movie as it was filmed. Mack Sennett (1880–1960) improvised slapstick on a fairly detailed script. On the other hand, the British director Alfred Hitchcock, known for his suspense thrillers, planned every detail before filming began, shooting the film almost exactly as it was written and working with the writer to obtain a precise visualization of every shot.

Using the example of Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation’s 1977 dramatization of …

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Learn More in these related articles:

January 22, 1875 Floydsfork, Kentucky, U.S. July 23, 1948 Hollywood, California pioneer American motion-picture director, credited with developing many of the basic techniques of filmmaking, in such films as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East...

January 17, 1880 Richmond, Quebec, Canada November 5, 1960 Hollywood, California, U.S. creator of the Keystone Kops and the father of American slapstick comedy in motion pictures. A master of comic timing and effective editing, Sennett was a dominant figure in the silent era of Hollywood film...

August 13, 1899 London, England April 29, 1980 Bel Air, California, U.S. English-born American motion-picture director whose suspenseful films and television programs won immense popularity and critical acclaim over a long and tremendously productive career. His films are marked by a macabre sense...